Image
© Viorel Florescu/Staff PhotographerParents waiting to pick up their children at Grant School in Dumont after a 10-year-old boy jumped from a second-story window. He later died.
A 10-year-old fifth-grader at the Grant School in Dumont was fatally injured Friday afternoon after jumping from a second-story window at the school and falling to the concrete below, police said.

Borough Police Chief Joseph L. Faulborn Jr. said the boy, taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, had succumbed to his injuries around 5 p.m.

The boy jumped from the window around noon, police said. Authorities have declined to provide the boy's name or further details of the fatal incident.

The drop from the window to a concrete sidewalk appeared to be about 25 feet.

Authorities have declined to provide details of what led to the tragedy. But the boy may have jumped after a dispute earlier in the morning with another boy over a chess game, according to a student who was in the classroom at the time.

The student added that before the boy jumped, he wrote a note that another student then passed to an adult in the room. A law enforcement source on Friday evening confirmed that the boy wrote a note before he jumped. The source did not describe it as a suicide note but said suicide is among the possibilities being investigated.

Elmer Pascia, said that he was removing snow from in front of his house across the street from the school when the boy jumped. He did not see the boy fall, he said, but afterward the boy appeared to be conscious and moving. A number of people immediately ran to help the child, while at the window above, a woman appeared frantic, Pascia said.

Superintendent of Schools Emanuele Triggiano declined to provide details of the incident Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, he called the incident a "terrible thing," adding, "The most important thing is to make sure that the child is in our prayers. We just hope that everything works out for him."

The district will make counselors available to students, parents and staff, Triggiano said, and Grant School will be open Monday morning.

The Grant School, on Grant Avenue, is a 2½-story, red-brick structure. The fatal incident occurred in an addition built in 1954. The building includes a base wall about 5 feet high. The windows like the one the boy jumped from are two-tiered, with the bottom two-paned window able to be raised. The window the boy jumped from had been lifted and remained intact after the incident.

School staff sent a request to parents and relatives of other students in the boy's classroom to pick up their children, said a number of parents and grandparents, who declined to give their names. A small but steady stream of adults appeared at the school throughout the afternoon. The rest of the school remained in session.

"I was scared and just freaked out," said Corey Schlosser, 27, whose daughter is a kindergartner at the school. "I don't know how something like this could happen, especially at a school. They're supposed to be protecting our children."

Triggiano was asked about supervision in the classroom but also declined to comment on that aspect of the tragedy.

Among investigators who went to the school were members of the Bergen County Sheriff's Criminal Investigation Crime Scene Unit.

Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this article.